QOL to Create a Teacher-Coaching Model to Reduce Challenging Behaviors and Support Teacher Well-Being

Nurit Sheinberg Ed.D., is an Assistant Professor in the College of Psychology and has been at NSU since 2006. She was awarded a Quality of Life (QOL) grant titled, “An Evaluation of a Teacher-Coaching Model to Reduce Challenging Behaviors and Support Teacher Well-Being in Preschool Settings”.

 

Briefly tell us about your grant-funded project.

It’s been a number of years that I’ve been very interested in ways of supporting both teachers and young children. So really, being able to support young children’s social and emotional development because early childhood is such an important period of time. That time really sets the foundations for future success. You know whether it’s school, personal, etc. When you do things from a preventive perspective, it really helps anticipate and prevent some challenges. People are always surprised that most of the children that are expelled from school are in preschool. So, that’s a period of time where the most happens. Part of the reasoning for that is because the teachers don’t have the training to deal with challenging behaviors. Instead, a lot of 3-year-olds are being asked to leave school. Not only is it concerning that you have so many preschoolers being asked to leave schools, but we also see this occurring significantly more with minority children, particularly African American preschoolers. There are other things at play. Most teachers go into working with children under the assumption that they’re doing as best that they can and that they’re supporting children. The issues are more based on lack of training, not teacher effort and intentions. One of the main requests from teachers is more training in behavior management. Therefore, how do we support teachers better? Putting those 2 things together, we’re like, okay, how can we provide support to teachers while at the same time supporting children? Because it’s all about teacher and child interactions.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a program that was working with children that have severe behavioral challenges, which was very intensive. That program was hard to replicate. I also had a previous Quality of Life (QOL) grant that was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, which with all the school closures and all the tremendous stress that COVID-19 brought to schools in general, particularly the early childhood environment, it was very challenging but also interesting to be able to implement that particular grant during that time. So, after that, we were like, what can we come up with that is again supporting teachers? But, also in a way that’s easier for schools to implement.

All of the mentioned concerns were already in place before COVID-19. But with COVID we saw the rate of mental health concerns increase, both with children and with teachers. The amount of children that are exhibiting anxiety and depression are being seen starting at very young ages.

Teachers, especially early childhood educators, have always been in a very stressful job and teachers are not paid like they should. So, there’s a lot of turnover rates in general, but with COVID burn out rates and stress increases, teachers needed even more support. So, all of those things together are how this project came to be.

 

Who is working with you on this project?

Initially when we first came up with this idea, it was a collaboration between the College of Psychology and the NSU University School. The person that was my collaborator, Lorraine Breffni, Ed.D., Assistant Dean of the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine, was the director of the NSU University School Preschool at the time. So, that was my internal collaborator and one of the external collaborators was the Early Learning Coalition in Broward County. The Early Learning Coalition is the entity that funds and coordinates training in Broward’s early learning community. We also worked with another agency called First Day Learning who provided the actual intervention. The 3 of us together implemented the project.

 

What opportunities and/or benefits does this grant bring to the NSU community?

What I really liked about my project and QOL grants, in general, is that you really bring together all those stakeholders. I have a large group of students, doctoral students in the College of Psychology that are working with me. They were able to get training on the different measures we use and one of the measures is a really nice instrument that looks at the emotional climate of classrooms, and we got trained through Yale University, which was very exciting. The students have been the ones helping me collect data, go to all the centers, and develop relationships with the community. And now, we’re in the process of analyzing the data and working on dissemination by submitting to a number of conferences. So, definitely from the student perspective it has been great. They have got great training and research experience, while developing relationships with the community.

Also, the community benefits. All of my research has an applied component; I love applied research. For me, it’s the opportunity to work with the community to really get from the community what it is that they need. You know it’s an odd thing to say “this is what we need to do”, when instead, we should ask “what do you need, how would this work, how should we implement it?”. In that way, collaborating with the Early Learning Coalition and with First Day Learning, while also talking to the different directors allowed us to be able to do something that makes sense to the community and will continue past the end of the grant funding.

 

How does this project connect with your other work that you’re currently working on?

My interest is in looking at social and emotional development of children and supporting protective factors in place. I want to be able to continue with this line of research. Once we are able to look at our data and see how the outcomes will lead to the next step in terms of providing that support to teachers. Like looking at professional development. What this study was looking at was coaching versus didactic trainings to see what we should continue to do. We have this collaborative relationship with the Early Learning Coalition and in terms of taking this to a larger scale, if we know that this works then we can provide this type of intervention to a larger group of children and to a larger group of centers in the community.

Continuing along the lines of seeing what’s the best approach to support both teachers and children in this process. Especially nowadays when there’s such a great need in terms of supporting children’s emotional wellbeing and preventing some of the issues that we are seeing. We’re dealing with kids who were born or were infants and toddlers when the pandemic happened, so many of the kids that were part of this project were those that were at home for 2 years. The first time they really interacted with other people was when they were like 3, in school. And we’re hearing from teachers how this group of children have had very unique needs in terms of knowing how to be around other children and they are being more anxious than your typical 3- or 4-year-old used to be. It is also the parents. You know, we were all anxious for a while during the pandemic, it was tough.

 

How has NSU helped you pursue and/or achieve personal and professional goals you have set for yourself? NSU resources used?

Both the quality of life and the PFRDG are amazing resources that the university provides to support us as faculty with seed money and with pilot ideas. It is great that the university is providing us those resources. You have those different types of grant competitions. So, if you’re thinking more of basic research versus more of the community collaborations it shows that the university doesn’t only focus on one type of research. I like that they are really trying to support a diverse range of research and projects.

Also, I mean, your office. The Division of Research & Economic Development is such a great resource. I have probably worked with Cathy Harlan, Director of the Office of Sponsored Programs, since she’s been at the university. I always find your office to be such an amazing resource in terms of answering questions, giving us resources, and being happy to help with whatever is needed. So, I really, you know, want to shout out how great of a support it always feels.

I also think the focus of the university on collaboration, right? They want you to make the most out of what we have and I think, sometimes people don’t realize how much we have. In terms of talent, resources, diversity, etc. So, I think that the focus on collaboration is really key to being successful.

 

What advice do you have for other grant seekers at NSU.

Well, first of all, to become aware of the QOL grant and other resources communicated frequently. We get so much good information that people might not be aware of in terms of how to write a grant, how to find funding, how to write a proposal, and how to be successful. Really take advantage of the resources that the university gives us. I think the university provides great support for new researchers but also seasoned researchers and depending where you are on that spectrum, there’s a way of getting additional support to be successful.

And again, the collaboration piece, you know. See what others are doing and how we can connect. Maybe you are missing one piece and someone else might have it. How can we work together to come up with stronger and broader proposals to target specific funding.

 

What is the next grant proposal or project on your agenda?

I’m trying to take what we did with this QOL grant to a larger scale. We are looking for funding to expand this project from a couple of centers to being offered in all of Broward County. With this expansion, we would be able to offer the services to all the early childhood programs that want to participate in the county. That’s our next goal.